Higher attendance was the driving point behind the Nationals' policy change

In DC, Adam Kilgore noted fans holding tickets to last night’s postponed Tigers-Nationals game can "use them only for Thursday’s makeup, a change in policy that rankled many Nationals fans as the team explained it as a consequence of higher attendance." Many ticket holders were "concerned they would not be able to attend a 4:05 p.m. weekday game after planning to go to a night game two days earlier." The Nationals in the past have "allowed fans with individual tickets to rained-out games to exchange them for any future ticket, subject to availability, of equal or lesser price." But the team last night announced “no exchanges or refunds will be issued” for tickets not included in season plans (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 5/7).

GROUP LOVE: On Long Island, Ivan Pereira notes Groupon as of yesterday was listing Yankees tickets "for weekday home games against the Indians and Mariners for $22, down from their $48 face value." Groupon Head of Consumer PR Tim DeClaire said that the site has had a partnership with MLB since '09 and has "worked with 13 teams to sell tickets so far this year." He added that the Yankees "didn't put up tickets on Groupon until June 13 last year" (NEWSDAY, 5/8).

PRICE CHECK, AISLE ONE: In Boston, Gary Remal notes with the end of the Red Sox' sellout streak, Fenway Park sponsor Stop & Shop is "offering its customers something they might have thought impossible to come by in months and years past: half-price BoSox tickets for nine home games against the Twins, Indians and Rangers over the coming five weeks." Red Sox Senior VP/Corporate Partnerships Troup Parkinson "denied that the Stop & Shop program was a Red Sox 'Hail Mary' to fill seats, instead calling it an offer to build loyalty with store customers that probably was planned long before the season’s first pitch" (BOSTON HERALD, 5/8).